A Flesh Wound … By Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture

August 4, 2011 Whitney Farmer 17 Comments

Whitney runs a rock music venue on the beach in L.A.. She has an M.B.A, and has red hair.

Rep. Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Giffords (D-Ariz.) returned to the floor of the House on Monday to cast her vote in favor of the debt ceiling compromise.  By the numbers, her vote was unnecessary for passage of the legislation. Her actions, however, could be remembered as the most essential contribution to arise from the mire of this manufactured international fiscal crisis.

Gabby came assisted by aides and her husband, Shuttle Astronaut Mark Kelly, and made her way through a bipartisan crowd of colleagues who clustered around her with genuine affection or disingenuous photo-mongering.  There were plentiful smiles and few dry eyes, exempting perhaps Rep. Boehner (R-Ohio). The notoriously weepy congressman who could give this season’s Bachelorette Ashley Hebert histrionics competition didn’t appear in photos. In researching the timeline of the vote, I wasn’t able to discover if he was present or had previously voted and exited.

Vice President Joe Biden hugged Presidential aspirant Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.), whose camp has yet to release a comment regarding the event since being queried by Washington Post reporters.  The symbolic power clustered around this debate is varied and continues to reverberate.  That the crisis was manufactured is evident. Debt ceiling increases were approved nine times during recent Republican presidential administrations.  That the financial crisis was averted but the financial damage remains is clear:  An elementary principle in capitalism is the assumption that the free market reflects full information.  And since lawmakers have already demonstrated that they are prepared to crash the U.S. economy for political rather than financial benefits is now reflected in international market wariness and credit downgrading for U.S. debt. Put another way, Tea Party politics demonstrated that America doesn’t have a free market because it can be vulnerable to macroeconomic extortion.

As a political leader, President Obama will need to define how he will deal with hostage-taking.  The Mossad mantra of zero-tolerance and no negotiations is profoundly appealing…but how does a leader walk in it when his country is under the gun?

Into this dark storm, Gabby walked with a limp onto the floor. Not only a congresswoman, she now is a member of one of the populations that is in jeopardy from Tea Party machinations: the disabled. She said what everyone needed to hear and should be reminded of regarding her return: She was excited to be back and honored to be at work. She demonstrated by her actions that she understands that the trust she has been given is sacred.

Once upon a long time ago, there was a divinely vetted ruler who ended up becoming cursed. His name was Saul, and he looked so much the part of a king that the people called out for his election despite his character flaws that would ultimately lead to his and his nation’s destruction.  One of his most grievous offenses occurred when he allowed his greed and political ambition to change his course on what should have been clear and decisive actions.  He had been told by the prophet Samuel to utterly destroy the kingdom of the Amalekites led by King Agag as punishment for what had been done against the tribe of Israel as they were coming up from Egypt.  But rather than destroy them, Saul spared Agag along with the finest of his livestock and goods. When Samuel learned how Saul had compromised, he summoned an arrogant King Agag into the royal court tented at Gilgal. There, after the Amalekite king walked in arrogantly saying, “The bitterness of death has passed,” the prophet hacked him to pieces.

What had the Amalekites done that God said He would never forget, and why couldn’t the Israelite forces take the spoils of war which was commonly the custom?  It was because of the way the Amalekites warred, and what had happened to the Hebrew tribe at their hands after leaving the slavery of Egypt.

The Amalekites preferred to attack the rear of an encampment, killing first the most vulnerable.  The weak, children, elderly, disabled, and pregnant women were the first to die under their hands.  And the spoils they then seized were the result of this diabolical but highly successful strategy.  By association, any booty that was seized in warfare against them had come from unholy and ruthless plundering of the most vulnerable. For a people who associated themselves with the God who was said to be above all gods and who could provide for all of their needs, this corruption of their provision was insupportable.  That small amount of leaven would have affected the entire loaf.

As our modern Amalekites advance their merciless agenda for selfish gain, the most vulnerable in our society will continue to be at risk of falling under their bloody swords. But just when all hope seems to be lost, a prophet who has had her beauty blasted away will limp onto the battlefield, held up by a newly-unemployed hero, and strike a lethal blow that makes the bad ones die from shame.

Quote of the Blog, from Rep. Gabby Giffords: “I had to be here for this vote. I could not take the chance that my absence could crash our economy.”